A group of 3 are planning our first snowboarding trip to Europe, I would be appreciated if anyone can provide some advices on my selection of mountains in France or Switzerland. Our planned schedule is from Mar 26 to Apr 10, 2010 (2 weeks). Our shorlisted mountains are Tignes, 3 Valleys or Verbier, we are planning to spend one week in Tignes (Tignes & Espace Killy) and going the other mountain for another week, either 3 Valleys or Verbier.

Considering the convenience of travelling between two places and exictment (we are all intermedian riders), could anyone suggest his / her opinions and provide the route of travelling from Tignes after the first week to the other. Our first pick is Tignes, but haven't decided the 2nd pick, either 3 Valleys or Verbier or the others.

What if we do not want to rent a car cause we'd like to save $$, prefer to take public bus or any transporation to/from resort & airport. Is there any conveninece way? To/From Tignes to Verbier is easier or to 3 Valleys?

The valley with an entrance at Albertville is known as the Tarentaise Valley with 1600km piste inside. This is the biggest concentration of skiing resorts in term of the most number of runs and chairlifts.

From Albertville a distance of 17 miles (27km) is Moutier which is the base for accessing 3 Vallees (Courchevel, Meribel, Les Menuires, Val Thoren) via two mountain passess. One junction before Moutiers is the branch road to Valmorel.

Another 17 miles further into the valley or 34 miles from ALbertville is Bourg St Maurice (BSM) where all trains terminate. BSM is the base for Les Arc as a skier can board the funicula at BSM and start skiing the entire 425 km Paradiski at the top of funicula. Paradiski is formed by Les Arc and La Plagne with only one cable car link. Most visitors for La Plagne will travell to La Plagne lower stations via Aime which is only 9 miles from Moutiers. From Aime to La Plagne there is a long and winding mountain road.

5 miles into the valley from BSM is the access road to La Rosiere which is linked to Italy's La Thuile. This is a nice resort allowing visitors to ski two countries in one visit.

17 miles from BSM is the 300km Espace Killy domain formed by Val D'Isere and Tignes. When people talk about either resorts and are able to ski end to end then it is the 300km domain they are refering to. Tignes is physically linked back to back to Val D same as Les Arc linked with La Plange.

The 3 Vallees near Moutiers has 200 chairlifts and 600km piste. It is double the size of Espace Killy and is the biggest in the world for a fully linked facility! Whistler/Blackcomb, claimed to be the biggest in North America, from my personal estimate is about the size of Espace Killy.

Travelling wise the easiest is to travel to BSM as about 5 minutes walk will be the funicula to Les Arc.

The 3 Vallees is more troublesome because each part of the 3 Vallees must be accessed by a mountain road after a vistor manages to reach Moutiers. The shortest one from Moutiers is to Meribel is 10 miles while the longest one to Val Thoren is 20 miles.

As a rule no resort owner in his right mind will provide transport facilities, like a bus service, to ship his clients to another resort. From Tignes it is doable to get to BSM becuase that is where the train terminal locates. Beyond that point a couple of hours can easily be lost just to catch the righ bus.

Bus services if available would be for the benefit of the locals and they only go to the villeges and towns whereas the skiing resorts are high up in the mountains. The last leg is frequently bridged by an expensive taxi ride because a skier cannot afford time to wait.

Staying in Tignes and then travel to Verbier is a totally different matter. We are talking, even with the most direct route, 130 miles distance. Visitors without own transport will have to travel to possibly back Generva as already mentioned. The more direct road link is to travel from Albertville to Chamonix and then go over the mountain pass Col de Forclaz between the French and Swiss border. That is a simple task for visitors with cars but there is no regular public transport between Chamonix and Verbier.

A viable solution would be for a Tignes visitor to take a bus to BSM, get a train to Geneva and from Generva to may be Martigny as I don't think the Swiss trains go up to Verbier. If there is a train service then I couldn't remember seeing one in my visits in that area.

Thus with only two weeks and no car I would think staying in Tarentaise is more sensible. Travelling to Verbier is to swim against the tide.

Personally I would not cut short my visit to 1600km Tarentaise Valley for the 410km piste in Verbier. No doubt the chalet owners there have done a good job to promote the place but there are better, more scenic and more enjoyable resorts in Switzerland, let alone eslewhere in the Alps. Verbier had the worst snow in my 2007 trip.

Thank you very much, Saikee, for your brief sharing. I think we are now finazlied our plan to spend a week in Tignes and the other week in Les Arcs. Just couple more questions, should we stay in BSM or Arcs 1600 / 1800? I did some research, it seems BSM is a big area with alot of activities going on, but the apartments seem older & more expensive; while I found couple apartments in Arcs 1800, they are about EUR100 cheaper for a apartment per week and look newer plus ski-in / ski-out. Is it convenience to ski from Arcs 1800 or we should stay in the base BSM?

In addition, do you know if I can also take the alpski-bus to go to BSM first from Tignes, then take the resort bus (with space to fit all our boards & luggages) to Les Arcs 1800 from BSM?

BSM is actually a town on the Tarentaise main road. From there are a couple of mountain passes to go up Les Arc. For skiing you will do better by staying in any of the Les Arc 1600, 1800 , 2000 or Plan Peisey. The last is where the cable car link to La Plagne situates.

Les Arc is fully linked so you can ski to everywhere. However there is quite a long distance from one end to Plan Peisey and could be boring if you have to ski the same runs everyday to get to La Plagne, so choose your accommdoation wisely.

Les Arcs has one the biggest vertical drop of over 2km from Aiguile de Rouge to Villaroger. Don't forget to go through it.

I never use the bus myself but I am aware that people can take the bus between Tignes and BSM as this route is served by the regular buses. There should be buses from BSM to any of the Les Arc resorts but I just don't have the details I think at the end a taxi ride isn't a big deal here as distance is quite manageable. From Google map you can verify the distance from BSM to Les Arc 1800 is about 15km or less than 10 miles. Depending on where you have booked it is quite possible that you can drag the luggage into the funicula and walk to the accommodation if you stay in Les Arc 1600.

Les Arc 1600, 1800 and 2000 have to be supplied daily so there have to be plenty bus services from the train station.

hi angie
just came across your thread
i would suggest yoiu gofor tignes/verbier
reasons being that two countries two ambiences two different cultures
Mind you both resorts wound have enough to occupy a keen skier/boarder for 2 weeks
from tignes a dierct ski bus will take you to genever international airport (4hrs approx) cost 60 euro one way or 101.50euro return 2008 price and from genever airport take swiss train to verbier(train station is connected to airport) from memory less than 100SF return and unlike France everyone speaks english so moving around is easy. ~Can be difficult if you do not speak the lingo in France
Swiss trainsare convenient and efficient
Letthe bus/train takes the strain
If you move from one resort to another you would lose one day skiing/boarding anyway so why not go to country everyone talks about Swisserland and a premier resort like Verbier

Hi Angie,
I am planning a similar skiing in France, I would suggest you stick with Tignes and Lec Arcs, these two are quite close together, can be easily accessd by the shuttle taxi or shuttle bus from Bourg St Maurice train station.

The shortest route from Tignes to Verbier is through the mountain pass between French and Swiss border, the road is windy, narrow and icy, definitely not suitable for people not used to drive in this kind of condition. If you take public transport, it will be much longer to go through Geneva. Although there is train service between Charmonix and Martigny, it is very infrequent.